Another 24 hours of the necessary evil that comprises of planes trains and automobiles to get to our destination, which this time was Charlotte North Carolina and were we happy to see the Holiday Inn sign which meant bed at last. Snow was falling heavily as we were checking in, very unusual for NC. First disaster of the journey happened when I left my wallet in the seat pocket of 15C on flight 165 from Dublin to JFK, with credit cards, bank cards and $200 in cash. I reported it as soon as I realized but it could not be found, Delta living up to their title - Do Not Expect Luggage To Arrive! Absolute bummer! Total exhaustion made us sleep like babies, up early in the morning though to do a radio interview with WBT radio 1, a station where the legendary Carter family launched their career decades ago. We were interviewed on the day by Mark Thomas, we played a few numbers and had a chat and headed back to the hotel. Played a great gig in a beautiful old church called Great Aunt Stella. Our thanks goes out to our host Dennis who took care of our every need.

Checked out next morning and headed for Carrboro NC and half way there we got a puncture, ok no problem we'll change the tire and move on. Could we find the spare tire?? Looked in all the usual places and some unusual ones, but it could not be found. Luckily enough we were spotted by a roadside assist truck driven by the extremely helpful Brad who bundled both the tire and us into his truck and took us to the nearest tire repair guy. Apparently we were the first ever foreigners that Brad ever had to help on the side of the highway in NC. An hour or so later we were back on track to Carrboro. Thanks Brad!! Next morning we discovered where the spare tire was, in a secret compartment under one of the back seats. You'd need to be Sherlock Holmes to find it, and we had only Michael Holmes! Ah well it was an adventure.

Great gig in the Arts Center in Carrboro, thanks to our friend Tess for organizing it for us, had great pizza next door too!! Up next morning had breakfast in a bagel shop next door from the hotel and headed for the last gig in NC, in a town called Southern Pines. No sooner had we arrived when Liam locked the keys of the van IN the van and we had to get a locksmith to get them out, hopefully that'll put an end to the bad luck that usually comes in threes.

"In the pines in the pines where the sun don't shine". What a brilliant time we had. we were treated to the finest of southern hospitality, ate like kings in a beautiful restaurant called Ashtons, The gig was in the Sunshine Theatre, proving that the sun does indeed shine. Thanks to Grace and all there for organizing things so well. The hotel was the Hampton Inn which is high on our list of favorite hotels, typical then that we had to leave our lovely 4 star beds at 5 am to get to Chicago via Atlanta for a gig tonight in the Fermilab Batavia IL.